One way of scaling large networks is to aggregate the channel connections carrying user traffic into the path channels. A failure of such aggregating path channels results in a need to re-route a large number of connections. Such a failure, referred to as channel connection outage, may lead to undesirable performance and reduces customers Quality of Service (QoS).
Traditional techniques to address the connection outage include the use multiple channel connections. However, the problem with using multiple channel connections is that significant time is required to re-route the user channel connections to a new path. Typically, the channel connections have to be removed and then re-established on the new path. When the number of connections is high, as is typical in a network, the time spent to re-establish the new path may reach several minutes. For service-oriented applications such as high availability applications, this outage time is undesirable.